Splashdown marks success for SpaceX crew
The crew of Inspiration4 splashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, ending a three-day mission that sent the world’s first all-amateur crew into orbit.
Their secondary mission, raising $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, was completed shortly after splashdown as SpaceX founder Elon Musk pledged $50 million on Twitter.
“We loved space but it’s great to be home!” mission commander Jared Isaacman said on Twitter. “Incredible news on @elonmusk donation and surpassing the 200m goal for @StJude. Let’s keep it going! On behalf of @inspiration4x – thank you all for the support and thanks to @SpaceX for bringing us home safe!”
Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, paid an undisclosed amount for the ride into space. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft launched his mission on Wednesday at 7:02 p.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It landed off the coast of the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday at 6:06 p.m.
Accompanying Isaacman, 38, were Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood cancer survivor and current physician assistant at St. Jude, Sian Proctor, 51, a geoscientist and science communication specialist, and Chris Sembroski, 42, an aerospace industry employee.
Their mission had many firsts.
It was the first time a spacecraft orbited the Earth without a single government-trained astronaut or cosmonaut onboard. Crew Dragon is fully autonomous, though the Inspiration4 crew completed months of training.
Arceneaux became the youngest American to go in space and the first person to fly with a prosthesis.
Their capsule flew as high as nearly 367 miles above the Earth’s surface. The last human spaceflight missions to fly in this vicinity of space were during the space shuttle era when astronauts repaired and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope. The Crew Dragon capsule’s dome-shaped window, called the cupola, was the largest contiguous window to have flown in space.
“We have been spending so much time in this cupola,” Arceneaux said during an event broadcast from space. “The views, I have to say, are out of this world.”
When the crew members
weren’t admiring the Earth, they were chatting with actor Tom Cruise — with whom NASA is partnering to create a film onboard the International Space Station — musician Bono and patients at St. Jude.
Isaacman, founder and CEO of the publicly traded company Shift4 Payments, rang the New York Stock Exchange’s closing bell. He also made a Super Bowl bet.
And the crew conducted a variety of research, including an experiment led by a scientist in Houston.
“We’re really proud to share this experience with everyone,” Isaacman said from space. “We know how fortunate we are to be up here. We’re giving all of our time right now to science research and some ukulele playing.”
Sembroski showed off his ukulele skills, and Proctor shared a picture she drew with markers. It was the Crew Dragon capsule being carried off the Earth by a dragon.
“Because we’re trying to open the frontier for more people and open up space to more humans, we’re going to be bringing more of our humanities with us,” Sembroski said.
And of course, there were the obligatory somersaults.
“Hayley is a champ at spinning,” Proctor said from space. “She has been spinning from the moment we got on orbit.”
Isaacman wanted the mission to be more than just a thrill ride, so he set the goal of raising $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He used a sweepstakes competition to raise money for St. Jude and select one member of
his crew. Sembroski’s friend won this sweepstakes and gave the seat to Sembroski.
Arceneaux flew as a representative of St. Jude, and Proctor won her seat through a contest promoting Shift4 Payments’ e-commerce platform called
Shift4Shop.
The crew had raised more than $130 million when they launched into
space. This included $100 million donated by Isaacman.
After splashdown, the crew had raised roughly $160 million. Then Musk pledged his $50 million and put the fundraising at $210 million.
“Two missions accomplished in one night,” St. Jude said on Twitter. “Thank you @rookisaacman, @inspiration4x, @elonmusk, @SpaceX for thinking beyond our planet and making things better for all of us here now and in the future.”
An auction should continue raising money for St. Jude. The children’s research hospital is also selling replicas of the space dog stuffed animal that acted as
the crew’s zero-g indicator. This indicator is displayed when a crew first enters microgravity to show they have reached space.
The space dog was created to represent the St. Jude therapy dogs that comfort kids. These dogs will even go through machines used for MRIs or CAT scans to show the kids that they’re not too scary.
“We wanted to bring one of these really sweet dogs to space,” Arceneaux said.
St. Jude quickly sold out of the stuffed dog, but there’s an option on its website to be notified when they come back in stock.